Steering-gear for automobiles.



H. P. LEE. STEERING GEAR FOR AUTOMOBILES.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 8, 1913.

Lgiw. Patented De@.1,1914.

z SHEBTS-SHBBT 1.

ILT. LEE. STEERING GEAR FOR AUTOMOBILES.

APPLIOATION FILED JULY s, 1913.

Patented Dec. 11914.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

-UNiTnD sraas ra. i;

Errr crnica., i

HARRY r. ann, or Gamen, omo, assrenoa ro THE @Amon ME'rALLrc vAULT y cotisant', mc., or cation', onto. I

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, HARRY F. LEE, citizen of the United States, residing at Galion, in the county of Crawford and State of Ohio, have Linventedlcertain new and useful Improvements in Steering-Gears for Automobiles, ofwhich the following is a speciica- 4 -tive in its action. and in which wear between the parts shall be capable of being taken up. A further object is. the provision of .a steering gear of a very simple character requiring but few parts and these simple in construction, which are'not liable to get out of'or.der, and which may be readily and cheaply manufactured.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a steering gear in which the steering post is provided lwith oppositely disposed cams engaging a rocker mounted on a transverse steering shaft and positively engaging said rocker so that there shall be no lost motion between the parts.

A further object of the invention. is the provision of means whereby tl'ig;` driving element7 as it may be terme-fi, of the steering gear and the 4driven eieinent m515.' be shifted toward each other so as to compensate for Wear.

' rocker on the driven shaft being shown in elevation. Fig. 4 is a side View partly sectional of one of the cams and the rocker.

F ig. 5 is a: bushing 11. i

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the following description and indicated in all the views of the' accompanying drawings by the ysame reference charaoers.

perspective View of the outer Referring to these dra-wings 2 designates the steering post of an automobile,` or like Speccation of Letters Patent.

relates to steering gear for STEERING-GEAR FOB AUTOMOBILES.

vehicle. The construction of thispost andk3 Patented Dec. 1, 1914;y f Application ied :any s, 191s. semi No. 777,924. "t

its-operation is so well known as not to rcquire description.

The steering post or shaft is supported in bearings, las willjbe" later described, the bearings being adjust? f y l, "so Mounted upon the steering post or'shaft 4 able.

in spaced relation to eachother are thecams 3 anda. These cams have the generaliform of a helical volute, the starting point aof each cam face being in a different plane B5 from the plane of the terminal-point b'ofgi the cam and the vcam face c extending' spirally outward and longitudinally of the"I shaft. These cams are reversely Aplaced relative to each other, that is the '-volutefofl one cam is -wound in the opposite direction'v to the volute of the next adjacent cam. 'A'tf the terminal portion b of each cam, the 'cam -face drops inward as at Z toward the center( of the cam, and this face cl isy cut 'awayas at e, for a purpose to be later stated. 'Thesel cams are keyed upon the shaft 2 by means of keys 5 so that the cams willrotate with the shaft. j"

Extending transversely to the tubular shaft or post 2 is the driven shaft '6 which carries upon it a head 7 formed withtliel laterally 'projecting armsk 8. These" pro-"- jecting arms 8 lextend in opposite directions from the head and tangentiallyto the axis' of the head and each arm is formed with a? pin supporting an antifriction roller,` 9; Each of these rollers is laterally concayed" upon its face sothat .each roller is somewhat semispherical in form and presents a round?red face to the action of vits corresponding cam. The arms are of such length that the convex faces of the rollers 9 bear against the active face of the corresponding cam.' It willbe seen now that vwhen the roller 9"" is in engagement with the lowermost por-"- tion of the corresponding cam 4, the roller` 9b is engaged with the highest portionliof the cam 3 and vice versa. obvious that as the arms 8 oscillate or rock, the rollers will be carried laterally aswell. as away from the sha-ft or toward the shaft;

hence the necessity oflformingthe c'amSB 'and 4f in the form of a helix. The arms 8,

the rollers mounted thereon and .the head1??A together form a rockerl mounted on the shaft 6V and acting to rock the shaft uponan osciIi-acon of the rocker and Yiti-*will'be ob- It will further be vious that this oscillation is secured by a rotation of the shaft 2 in one or the other direction. It will further be' seen by Vthe drawing that the rocker will rotate the shaft 6 through the arc of about sixty degrees.

lIn order to provide means whereby the rollers 9a and 9'b may be always held in close engagement with the active faces of the cams 3 and 4 I provide for adjusting the shaft 2 and the cams thereon toward or from a plane cutting the-center of the shaft Themechanism heretofore described is intended to be engaged within a casing 10 which has bearings at each end through which bearings the shaft 2 passes. Interposed between the shaft 2 and the bearings 10 of the boXings Within which the shaft is 'ournaled are the bushings 11.` Each bush# ing is'annularin form but the bore of the bushing is eccentric to the axis 2 of the bushing. The bushing at one end of its bore is forme'd with the inwardly inclined -orbeveled seat 12'while'the other end of the bore is slightly increased in diameter and interiorly screw-threaded at 13. Disposed Within thebushing' 11 and bearing directly l.against the shaft is a split bushing 14 of copper or-like material, the ends of which are.' beveled as. at 15. En aging the screw- Athreads-at the ends of eac of the bushings 11 `is a wedging member 16, the exterior face of which is screw-threaded as at 17,

4While the interior face is beveled Las at 18 to conform to the adjacent beveled end of the split bushing'lli.

or farther from the shaft 6. Thus all lost motion due to vwear upon the camroller' shaft is taken up. Furthermore, the bearing, consisting of the parts 11 to 17, permits wear to be taken, up on the shaft 2 by'screwing inthe cap nuts, or wedging members 16 and forcing the interior bush ings '14: into close' engagement with the shaft. r

' Hardened washers 19- are vdisposed between'theend faces of the cam hubs and the adjacent ends of the members 11. This prevents wear due to end thrust and keeps the cams ycentralizedwith relation to the cam-roller-shaft.' The casing 10 is preferably of malleable iron with a clearance of about one-half to =threesixteenths of an l yinch.

vIt will v.be obvious that the mechanism heretofore described is extremely simple in its operation and very positive. There is no lost motion inasmuch as tne cams are arranged to compensate for each other and so that the rollers on the ends of the rocker arms are always brought into firm engagement with 'the cam faces. With my construction there is no play of the rocker arms relative to the cams but 'whenv one rocker arm is forced outward, the other rocker arm is positively forced inward. Furthermore, as the driven shaft 6 or the rollers 9a and 9b or thepins for these rollers Wear, this wear can be compensated for by rotating the eccentric outer bushing 11 so as to tighten up the parts, prevent rattling and prevent lost motion.- Furthermore, these eccentric bearings may always be tightened up on the shaftso as to compensate for the wear of the shaft and so as to prevent the parts from rattling.

The purpose of" forming the recess 'e in the terminal end of each cam is to permit of a full inward movement of the corresponding roller on the rocker arm when the opposite roller is bearing against the highest.

portion of the opposite cam. Thus the rollers' are permitted to move into position di# rectly over the axis of the shaft 2.

My invention is simple, effective in operation, can be readily repaired and has many points of superiority over the ordinary worm gearing used 'for this purpose.

' What I claim is:

1. steering mechanism `for automobiles including a steering post,.a steering shaft at an angle to the post, bearings for the steering shaft, adjustable means positively engaging the steering post fo;` movement in opposite directions, whereby the steering post may be positively shiftedrtoward or from vthe steering shaft, and means on the steering post engaging the vsteering shaft to rock it when the steering post is axially rotatd.

2. A steering gear. ofthe character described including a driving shaft, a driven shaft extending transversely o f the driving shaft, a pair of cams. mounted upon the ing the form of a helical volute, the end driving shaft-each cam having the form of face of the volute being cut out, a rocker arm on the driven shaft, extending transversely thereto, and rollers mounted, on the opposite ends of the rocker arm and engaging with the faces of the cams .the recess sponding rocker arm.

on the end face of each cam having a size i adapted to receive the rollers onthe corre- 4. A steering gear of the character- `described including a driving shaft, eccentric bearings on, which lthe driving shaft is mounted, a Vdriven shaft extending trans# upon the driven shaft,and rollers mounted upon the opposite ends ofthe rocker arm, -each Gam.

versely to the driving shaft, oppositely di-` rected' helically volute cams mounted upon the driving shaft, a rocker arm mounted engaging the face ofthe corresponding 5.. A 'steering gear lofi the character described including a 'driving'shafg bearings within which said driving shaft is mounted,l

eccentric b'ushin s disposed in said bearings and through vvhlch the driving shaft passes, said bushings being rotatable to shift the driving shaft laterally, a driven shaftjextending transversely-to the driving shaft, a pair of cams mounted upon the driving shaft inward of said bushings, each cam having the form of a helical -volute, a rocker arm mountedupon the driven shaft and extending transversely thereto, the-ends of said rocker arm being operatively engaged by the faces of said'cams..

6.k Asteering gear of thev character described including .a driving shaft, a pair of cams mounted upon the driving shaft and spaced'fromeach other, each lof said cams having the form of a helical volute,I a washer disposed against ythe outer ends of the cams, ppositely disposed bearings for the shaft, an eccentrically bored bushing disposed in each bearing, each bushing at one end on its inner face being formed with an inwardly inclined seat,the ,other end of the bushing jtion. l

In testimony whereof I affix my signature being interiorly threaded, an interior split bushing disposed within each first named bushing and having beveled ends, anut having a threaded portion engagingwith the interior of the outer bushing and having a -b'eveled face engaging with the correspondgaging with the faces of said cams and moved thereby in relatively opposite directions.4 v

` *8. A mechanism of the character devscribed including a shaft, a pair of. cams mounted-upon the vshaft in spaced relation to each other', each cam having the form of a helical volute, the direction of one volute being opposite to the direction of the other volute, and oppositely movable members envolute, and a pivoted member having arms extending in. opposite directions, the extremities of said arms being operatively engaged by the faces of the cams whereby to give the pivoted member an oscillating motwo witnesses. HARRY F. LEE. [n s] Witnesses:

L. M. LIGGETT, CARL J. GUGLER.

in presence of 

